Teens have always been the purveyors of popular music and, often, their tastes define the charts, so to understand what they’re listening to is to understand what is a viral hit.
Spotify Wrapped 2025 gave us plenty to unpack, from listening ages to Wrapped Clubs, but the most important data the music platform has to offer may not be found on your phone. Casey Lewis got the exclusive on what Gen Z teens are listening to on her After School Substack, and it tells us a lot about the music kids are engaging with.
To start, let’s look at their top artists.
Related story
The Artists That Dominated Teens’ Spotify Wrapped (& What To Know About Them)
Top Artists Listened To By U.S. Gen Z, Ages 13-17
1. Drake
2. Tyler, The Creator
3. Kendrick Lamar
4. Taylor Swift
5. Billie Eilish
Top Artists Listened To By Global Gen Z, Ages 13-17
1. Arijit Singh
2. Billie Eilish
3. Taylor Swift
4. The Weeknd
5. Bad Bunny
While most of the internet declared Kendrick Lamar the winner of his rap beef with Drake after he dropped “Not Like Us,” calling out the Canadian rapper’s alleged interest in “a minor,” Drake still retained his popularity among young fans.
Tyler, The Creator managed to hold the second-place spot after the release of Chromakopia in October 2024. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish also proved popular among younger music fans — no surprises there.
On a global level, Indian singer Arijit Singh topped lists not only among teens but in India as a whole, marking his seventh consecutive year as the country’s top artist.
Bad Bunny ranks fifth among teens but definitely clawed back numbers with a slightly older audience, sending him to the top spot on Spotify’s global top artist and global top album lists for the January-released Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
Top Songs Listened To By U.S. Gen Z, Ages 13-17
1. “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez
2. “No One Noticed” by The Marías
3. “See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis)” by Tyler, The Creator & Kali Uchis
4. “back to friends” by sombr
5. “luther (with sza)” by Kendrick Lamar & SZA
Top Songs Listened To By Global Gen Z, Ages 13-17
1. “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars
2. “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez
3. “back to friends” by sombr
4. “I Wanna Be Yours” by Arctic Monkeys
5. “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish
The Top Songs list is where we start to see some less recognizable names for those of us whose Spotify Listening Age was more in the elder millennial or Gen X range.
Teens were getting in their feelings with singer-songwriter Gigi Perez’s “Sailor Song” and Billie Eilish’s “WILDFLOWER.” Perez, who is openly a lesbian, sings about experiencing longing for a woman even in the face of societal judgment. Fans on TikTok have openly celebrated the song’s queer love themes.
In Eilish’s hit, she sings about comforting a girl through a breakup, only to go on to date the girl’s ex, a theme not necessarily exclusively relatable to teens, but let’s be honest, how many of us went through similar situations in high school?
After a breakout year and a Grammy nomination for best new artist, it’s not surprising to see The Marías earn a spot on Gen Z playlists with “No One Noticed.” With bilingual Spanish and English lyrics, The Marías are known for dreamy, psychedelic sounds that will no doubt soundtrack Gen Z teens’ main character moments.
If you didn’t already know who Sombr was, you might have been introduced to him through his October TikTok scandal when he hit back at a fan who called his performance style “cringe.” The artist responded, telling her, “If you’re 25 years old, and you’re gonna come to my concert and not expect people younger than you to be there when I, the artist, am five years younger than you, it’s just a skill issue.”
Thus, debates ensued about Sombr’s vulgar performance style, which included references to oral sex and requests for fans to “bark” for him, and about music critique in general.
If there’s anything to take from teens’ top songs, it’s that yearning is alive and well for the younger generation. Sombr’s “back to friends” and Perez’s “Sailor Song” nail the feeling, but teens were yearning so badly that they had to throw it back to 2013 with Arctic Monkeys’ “I Wanna Be Yours” to really capture the emotion. To more yearning in 2026!
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sheknows.com ’
